Ceaseless Horizons [A LitRPG Progression Fantasy]

The next few hours passed peacefully. Or well, as peaceful as life got in Lev's case.

A punch filled with blue fire landed on a troll's chest, blowing a small hole in it while throwing the commander back dozens of meters. The impact was further heightened by a blue burst of fire released on contact, searing the flesh badly enough to reduce the monster's regeneration by half.

Lev was on it before the commander could get up. A moderate amount of lightning and blue fire swirled in his armor, stressing its structure dangerously, but the results were worth it.

A part of his mind, currently divided into two, was constantly keeping an eye on the enhancement formation and elemental imbuing. Both of them were compatible, and the combination of the destructive elements was doing interesting things to his armor.

Another punch on the monster's face, shearing off a portion of it from the force and a subsequent fiery blue explosion. A barrier wall was already present behind it, arresting its momentum, and as it rebounded into his other fist, this one filled with crackling lightning.

The beatdown continued for several seconds as Lev cycled through both elements. All of his attempts at mixing them in the imbuing had failed, but that didn't mean the experiment was a failure. His mind struggled to accomplish it, but his joints were all empowered by the blue flames, and so were his hands and feet.

Lightning imbued the rest, and combined, both his speed and strength saw a large increase. Overall, it was still lower than when he went all out with only lightning and maximum enhancement formation, especially the speed, though that would change. He could feel that it was a step in the right direction and that with the right runes, he would be able to mix and match elements for selective imbuement.

It was also progress towards eventually activating Arcane Supremacy, the rune that never left his mind. Lev couldn't wait.

The testing was interrupted by several notifications, which he observed impassively.

[

You have slain [Troll Shaman - Level 299]

…

You have slain [Stone Hounds - Level 278]

…

You have slain [Troll Commander - Level 331]

]

Not a single level, he exhaled deeply and looked towards the dreadwoods. However, these guys should be a good source of training.

[Scaled Kombas - Level 330]

…

[Scaled Kombas - Level 349]

"I reckon this will help in getting used to your Perception," Lev sent to his team. "Pay attention."

They straightened in his bubble, only two or so kilometers away. Spectating the upcoming brawl was pretty easy for them because of the improved eyesight from Perception.

Lev stored Stargazer in his ring and double-checked all the equipment on his person.

Enhancement formation? Check.

Flameforged Constitution? Check.

Hardening and Absorption on plates? Check.

Everything else was already good to go, for he was constantly using them. The first Kombas reached him with its arms raised high. He could've easily beheaded it with Stargazer in a burst of speed, and that would've also defeated the purpose of the brawl.

Using the triangular shield on his arms, Lev braced himself and directly blocked its smash. The ground beneath his feet exploded as he was rattled inside the armor, reminding him to finally get padding. His Constitution was no longer enough to absorb the vibrations going through his armor.

Quickly righting himself, he used the decent amount of generated lightning and imbued it in his armor. Swiveling around its punch, he jumped on its meaty arm and punched its scaled face, releasing a burst of lightning on contact.

His armored fist dug deep inside, and the lightning made the hole even deeper, frying the brain.

Jumping away from the falling corpse, he ducked the charge of another Kombas, sliding between its duck and deflected the swipe of another. The strike was strong enough to send him flying, exactly as planned. Forming a small barrier platform, he utilized the momentum by turning it into a lunge with a single step, flying directly towards a distant Kombas. In another punch, it was incapacitated.

The fight went much the same. Each scaled monster was far too slow to have any hopes of catching him, and he wasn't even using any imbuement beyond the absorbed mana. The shields on his arm absorbed all of their attacks with only minor strain, converting a significant portion of the force into lightning.

It was amusingly twisted in how they only fueled their own deaths. Lev was having a lot of fun being the middleman. Before long, the fourteen monsters were all on the ground, most of them dead. Forming a few arrows, he enchanted them before overloading the runes, swiftly puncturing the brains of the remaining Kombas.

****

In the end, there were no more third-threshold monsters so close to the wall, and for good reason. Lev was somewhat surprised by the lack of dread monsters coming for him, though that could also be explained by the frequent patrols.

What was surprising though, was that he had actually killed more than a thousand monsters in five hours. It was ridiculous for a lone Master, especially one at level 264. That just wasn't done.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Consequently, the rumor mill had started working long before he was done. Lev didn't particularly care, for his mind was way more interested in the core in his hands.

[

Dreadprowler Core

Possesses Excellent Mana Capacity and Mana Conductivity.

Shows Lesser properties of Shadow and Minor properties of Stealth and Senses.

]

The core was nothing short of a treasure. He was allowed to keep it without a peep from anyone. After all, from all the kills, he hadn't kept literally anything else. The guild was given simple instructions.

Just take whatever was worthwhile and give him merit points for whatever stood out.

It was that simple. A single nod from Hakim approved the request, because there were literally no downsides for the guild. Lev also didn't fail to notice how excited some of the guild staff were at finding an almost completely intact Dreadprowler corpse. It seemed they were very rare at the third threshold.

As for the core itself, he was debating just giving it to Hakim for when Aaron evolved to Master. The rogue would no longer be limited in handouts, and equipment carrying such a potent core could easily raise his capabilities immensely.

That, or Lev could forge a sneaky suit for himself with the core. He still wasn't sure about that.

Actually, he wondered and flew back to his room to shower. I can trade it for a skinsuit that will actually last me for ages. The guild should have some pretty good equipment, no?

He supposed it was worth a try. Ten minutes later, Lev was refreshed and flying to the hunters guild under invisibility. There was probably an official channel to utilize merit points. He didn't have the faintest clue about them, leading him to knock on the guildmaster's office again.

"Come in," Hakim's voice sounded from inside. Lev entered through the open doors and bowed, waiting for approval.

"What's up?" Sherron asked, casual as ever.

"Merit points," Lev replied and took a seat. "Or however else I can trade this core for equipment. It's worth quite a bit, right?"

"Much of the worth comes from the lesser shadow property," Hakim nodded slightly. "What do you want to exchange it for?"

"A skinsuit like the one from Dennis," he looked at Sherron. "Do you think they have one?"

"A skinsuit worth as much as the core? Unlikely, but you don't need it immediately, do you?"

"Fair enough," he agreed. "I will be fighting repeatedly however, and also take things up a notch for my bubble cannons. Also, is there a way to buy runes that contain one's aura?"

"Contain? Like in an enclosed space?"

"Yep."

"Don't traumatize the kids," she rolled her eyes, though not disapproving. Instead, Sherron looked at Hakim.

"A portable ward can be lent for free," the guildmaster answered a bit of thought. "Provided you do not try to pry them open, though I doubt you even know how to."

"Correct," Lev grinned. "I can just ask and I'll eventually get them anyway."

"Oh, is that so?" Sherron hmm'd, a brow raised. "How come you don't have a girl-"

Lev interrupted with a flat stare. "Please. I literally don't have time for it."

"That wasn't always the case," she tilted her head. "Or was it?"

"I honestly think it was," he answered, thoughtfully. "Imagine if I was even slightly weaker during the warg encounter. That would've been it. So, I like to imagine that I was right in working as hard as I could."

She gave him an unamused glance without refuting the statement. The truth in it was undeniable, even if both of them were unhappy with it.

"Welp," he put the core on the table. "Use it and whatever else is needed from my merit points. Will it be a custom commission?"

"Yes," Hakim answered.

"Then I have a request. Can it include padding? Simple air bubbles to absorb the impacts or similar enchantments will be plenty."

"That should be easy enough," Sherron added.

"Alright then. Will this much be enough for an Epic piece, or do I need to hunt for more?"

"It's enough," Hakim waved him off. "We often reward hunters for their deeds. The surplus of monster parts and cores you provided yesterday was enough to commission a pretty good piece."

Ten minutes later, he was back on the western wall. His team was back in their rooms, resting for the big day ahead. Lev didn't need to sleep, so he settled down in his concealed bubble and started working on their new equipment.

Kayla's bracer was good enough already. He couldn't come up with any improvements that wouldn't be too strong, which left the longsword, hammer, and shield. Armors were beyond him currently, as well.

The backup equipment was summoned from his ring, all held aloft by barrier hands. By now, he had observed every part of them in excruciating detail, formulating the best plans in his head.

Taking one last look at the longsword, he formed the base of his own version. It was thin, meant to serve as the first layer, and was carved with the most complex rune in his repository. Flameforged constitution was, frankly, completely unnecessary. What he wanted to test was how well Amelia could absorb and empower herself with flames of his making.

To that end, the second layer was given a fire converter, and its edges were enchanted with fire coalescence, as was the part closest to the hilt, both to facilitate releasing the fire mana more easily and absorbing it.

The third layer had the standard combination of sharpness and durability. Both of the formations were far from the best one he could use, and neither was the sharpness going to come into play anytime soon.

Lastly, the fourth and final layer was for decoration. Lev recalled the few clips and pictures of eastern dragons he had seen from Earth. Their long, serpent-like bodies were perfect for the longsword, so the next hour was spent carving one with great care. He even went ahead and used fire coalescence runes to make it brighter in certain places, and once it was done, the result looked quite majestic.

The maw of the dragon ended close to the tip, and whenever the fire traveled, it left a pulse that traveled through the entire decoration, illuminating the sword from hilt to tip.

There was one more issue, though.

She won't think anything negative of this, would she?

Honestly, Lev was more worried about Kayla interpreting it wrongly and putting weird ideas in Amelia's head. The swordswoman herself probably would've just appreciated the design like Lev.

I mean, it does look badass. I doubt they will think anything of this.

The shield came next, and he already knew how to form one due to his own experience with handling similar constructs. The only change was porous constitution, enabling the shield to harden itself by absorbing impacts. Once again, standard runes were used, far from the best.

Lev hoisted up Jack's hammer and pondered. A weight increase enchantment was necessary, but what else? The options were pretty limited, and at the same time, a simple weight increase would already be potent, even more so because he had a custom metal hammerhead already made.

Similar to Stargazer, it had small channels in the structure to allow barrier threads to pass through. That way, he could completely cover the metal head while also influencing it with enchantments.

Deciding that too much power would only do harm, he formed the barrier hammer around the head and enchanted it with weight increase and durability. Despite the simplicity, it was a deadly weapon, especially because Jack had a skill that dealt with blunt weapons.

For himself, he was going to go with something simple. Jack's hammer could potentially hurt a lot, and so could Amelia's sword, even if it was blunted, but Lev still wasn't going to use his armor. Training his team was just as much training for himself, and he wanted to take his time to improve the basics. With a stable handle on kinetic energy runes, he could empower his armor even further now, especially once he had adequate protection and padding for himself underneath.

Preparing himself for that was going to take more than a little time. Sparring with his team in melee was going to be the first step, and he formed two gauntlets similar to his Dreamchaser pair. They covered his arms halfway to the elbow, and having observed several different mundane gauntlets, he also formed them in layers.

The first layer got a simple weight increase rune, one of the best ones he had to practice activating and deactivating it in instants. The third and final layer was enchanted with durability runes, and the middle layer had hardening runes connected to kinetic absorption formation covering his fingers and knuckles. Kinetic Absorption existed to simply hinder his movements, for he had a lot more base strength and dexterity than his team, and also to negate much of the impact in case he hit them too hard.

It wouldn't do to accidentally break a bone or few.